ANIMAL POWER SITUATION IN BANGLADESH. ABSTRACT. This paper emphasizes that draught power has received inadequate attention in the process of ...
ANIMAL POWER SITUATION IN BANGLADESH
M. A. Jabbar Department of Agricultural Economics Bangladesh Agricultural University Mymensingh
Report Prepared for The Asian Regional Team on Employment Promotion, International Labour Organization, Bangkok
December 1985
ANIMAL POWER SITUATION IN BANGLADESH
ABSTRACT
This paper emphasizes that draught power has received inadequate attention in the process of formulating and implementing agricultural development programmes. The conventional method of measuring draught power adequacy in terms of the number of animals available in relation to requirement is questioned. Disaggregation according to age, sex and health of draught animals, their spatial and temporal distribution, and distribution across farm size groups show that there is substantial shortage of drought power in the country. Large scale use of cows for draught purposes has been shown as a problem of serious concern because of the long term negative effect on fertility and milk production. At the end, some suggestions have been made with a view to ease the power problem.
INTRODUCTION The main objective of agricultural policy in Bangladesh during the last two decades has been to achieve self-sufficiency in foodgrain production. Since there was no unused land to be brought under cultivation, raising crop yield and increasing cropping intensity through the use of irrigation, fertilizer and HYV seeds were adopted as strategies to achieve the objective. Major research, extension and credit facilities have been directed toward cereals and substantial foreign assistance has been received in these fields. So far, self-sufficiency in foodgrain production has remained an elusive target because growth rate in foodgrain production has remained far behind the growth rate in population. The overall performance of the crop sector has been poor. Inadequate investment in agriculture, substantial under utilization of irrigation capacities, suboptimal used of fertilizers, unfavourable agrarian structure (farm size and land tenure system) are generally identified as major reasons for the poor performance of agriculture. Though power is an important component of production technology, little attention has been given to expand the power base of agricultural operations except in the case of irrigation. The area now comprising Bangladesh is one of the earliest user of animal power for crop production. For many reasons, animals still provide nearly all the power for tillage, a substantial amount of power for threshing paddy, crushing oilseeds and sugarcane, and for transportation of goods. It has been generally reported in planning and other documents that since the early 1960s there was some shortage of animal power in the country. But the nature and dimension of shortage has not been properly identified and quantified nor has this shortage been considered a constraint on the success of the
2
crop production strategy, particularly the expansion of seed-fertilizer-water technology (see for example, Pakistan 1970; Lawrence 1970s; Bangladesh 1973; FAO 1977; Bangladesh 1978; Hossain 1973; Hossain 1980). Only in the Second Five Year Plan (1980-85), the problem has been given some appreciation: “…This low level of availability [of animal power] is due to almost doubling of human population, reduced availability of feeds and fodder and traditional negligence of the sector during the past 30 years. If this situation is allowed to continue, the programme for doubling of food production is bound to suffer seriously for shortage of draught animal power and malnutrition will continue to pose a serious threat to the vast vulnerable group of the human population. Livestock development, therefore, deserves a high priority not only for production of livestock products but also for production of crops …”(Bangladesh 1980, pp.xii-69). An adequate and expanding power base is obviously essential to expand agricultural production which is particularly essential for poor Bangladesh. Therefore, an objective analysis of the nature of the power problem can be adapted to give new insights into strategies for the development and eventual extension of appropriate technology congruent with the existing farming system. In Bangladesh, the forms of appropriate technology will be dominated by animal power for many more years. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the nature and extent of animal power shortage in the country. In doing so, the problems of conventional method of measuring shortage are discussed and alternative indicator of shortage suggested. Possible ways of solving the power problem are also suggested.
PROBLEMS OF MEASURING ADEQUACY OF ANIMAL POWER Shortage in animal power availability has been generally defined for the country as a whole by the difference between the number of animals available and the number of animals required for cultivation. Requirement has been generally estimated on the assumption of a pair of bullock to every 4 acres of cultivable land irrespective of the intensity of cropping. There are a number of pitfalls in this method of measuring adequacy. First, statistics on the availability of draught cattle is very poor. Second, adequacy may vary between regions and between different types and sizes of farms. Animals are indivisible, consequently the ratio of a pair of bullock to every 4 acres may not be relevant for all farms. Third, agricultural operations being highly seasonal, adequacy in the peak seasons is more important than year round adequacy. In fact, substantial excess capacity may exist in off-peak seasons. Fourth, quality of animals reflected in age, sex and health may be such that the number of animals may not be a proper proxy for the actual amount of power available. Moreover, quality of animals may vary across regions and sizes of farms. These issues are discussed further giving supporting empirical evidence.
3
Livestock Statistics Livestock statistics in Bangladesh is very poor1. Estimate of the total cattle population in recent years range from 18.3 million to 31.0 million and there is similar variation in estimates of the number of draught animals (Table 1). Estimates for 1960 and 1977 are based on livestock component of the Agricultural Census conducted in those years. The exact basis of estimate for the other years has not been made known 2. Estimates for 1970-71 and 1972 are unusually low because of an estimated loss of 0.47 to 2.8 million cattle during a cyclone in November 1970 and an estimated slaughter of about 2.3 million cattle for meat by the Pakistani Army during the War of Independence in 1971 (Samad 1971; Mettrick 1976; Odend’hal 1978). In 1960 and 1977, there were 2.04 and 2.28 draught animals respectively for every 4 acres of cultivated land. Thus in the aggregate there was no shortage of draught power in terms of number of animals in those two years. However, given the rather dubious reliability of the data for all other years adequacy measurement is likely to be highly inaccurate, even when other considerations discussed below are not taken into account. Inter-regional and Inter-farm Differences in Adequacy Level of adequacy may differ between regions and between sizes of farms. Cattle and draught cattle densities in different districts of Bangladesh in 1977 are shown in Tabe 2. Inter-district comparison indicates substantial differences in human, cattle and draught cattle densities. There is strong positive correlation between densities of agricultural population and cattle (r = 0.65, P
